There is a confusing verse in 1 Samuel 16 (italics mine): Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him. 1 Samuel 16:14 NIV This has been an incredibly uncomfortable passage for me. I have studied this passage a number of times in a number of …
Chapter 5: Scripture’s Call to Moral Action
This is the longest chapter in the book. Over 12,300 words. Take your time with it! Scripture’s Moral Truths In Chapter 1, I described the overall dilemma facing the church as this: How much of the “not yet" is it the responsibility of the church to advance in our real world today? And then I …
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Chapter 4: A Confession
A Confession I ended the previous chapter with four questions Christians need to answer as we consider our responsibility to be agents of the gospel in the world today. However, before I can address any of those questions directly, it’s important for me to openly address the biases from which I am …
Chapter 3: Gospel Integration
Gospel Integration Some traditions refer to the transformative work of the gospel as “progressive sanctification," but the application of that concept is almost exclusively individual and “spiritual." For those traditions, the gospel begins a spiritual work in the heart of a person to make that …
Chapter 2: A Re-United Gospel
Our Different Gospels Not long ago, I was in a meeting with a variety of pastors from a variety of traditions and we were talking about something scholars call “Liberation Theology." Before long, we found ourselves in the midst of a heated debate over the true meaning of the word gospel. For the …
Chapter 1: The Dilemma of the Church
The Dilemma of the Church Incongruity From the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry with them, the disciples faced a difficult dilemma. Borne largely out of the incongruity between what they thought the Messiah was supposed to do and what Jesus was actually doing, they constantly and repeatedly were …
No, Sunday Worship is Not the Mark of the Beast
Someone recently drew my attention to a series of videos on Amazon Prime going by the title, "The Days of Noah." I hate to draw attention to videos that are filled with misinformation, but I fear that someone else might come across them and so, I'm posting this here in case that someone is …
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Introduction
Before getting into the main content of my book, I want to take some time to share an introduction of sorts, a brief description of the journey I have taken over the past 16 years or so. Introduction In 2006, when Jennifer and I moved to Lafayette to start a church, we had a number of …
The “Good Morning Church” Book
edit: I have removed the chapters from my blog for the moment because I'm submitting the book to publishers and agents at the moment. For a number of years now, I have been on a spiritual and emotional journey of learning what I was never taught about racism by building personal relationships …
Next Steps for the Church in America
Today in the New York Times, David Brooks published an opinion piece about the Evangelicals who are trying to save evangelicalism from itself. Evangelical is a word that I used to fully embrace for myself because I thought it was a word that described a commitment to the gospel, a commitment to the …
Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
Photo by James Eades on Unsplash In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday, I thought I would take a look at one of his most important works. As a white man, my knowledge of the life and work of Dr. King is almost entirely limited to his "I Have a Dream" speech, and I thought that in …
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Christ-Centered Interpretation of the Bible
In my message last Sunday, I encouraged everyone to build their lives on the foundation of understanding God's Word. Specifically, I gave this as our take-home principle: I’ll build my life on a JESUS-CENTERED understanding of GOD’S WORD. At the core of this statement are two important …
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